1001 Fontaines

Since its creation in 2004, 1001 Fontaines has focused its efforts on enabling rural populations to produce safe drinking water locally through the creation of social micro-enterprises.

The three pillars of the model are water quality, accessibility (including affordability for beneficiaries) and sustainability.

Small water kiosks are set up and entrusted to local entrepreneurs, hired and trained by in-country partners. Water is produced locally using a low-cost technology (UV treatment and solar energy). It is then bottled and sold at an affordable price to villagers and provided free of charge to children at school. The water bottles are delivered at home to guarantee quality to the end-users and save valuable time for women and children generally in charge of water collection.

Each local entrepreneur takes part in a dedicated training program called the “Social Entrepreneur Academy” to learn how to treat the water, raise awareness within his/her community, recruit new clients and successfully manage the business. We believe that relying on individual entrepreneurship (versus sole community ownership) helps to provide economic incentives for growth and clear responsibilities for operations.

1001 Fontaines has proven its ability to build a sustainable model addressing the need for safe drinking water in rural areas (450,000 beneficiaries and 500 jobs created at grassroots level since creation). The Cambodian project is on track to achieve full self-financing and reach out to 1 million beneficiaries by 2020. In Madagascar, a first replication has been undertaken since 2008, showing the capacity of the model to fit into a different environment.

1001 Fontaines is partnering with the International NGO BRAC to deploy its model in Myanmar. This project will start in 2017 with a two-year pilot phase supported by If International Foundation.